Transparency Versus Progress (Part 2)

In Part One of this article, we discuss a very timely example of why information needs to be managed and care needs to be taken when managing it. In this article, we try to provide an update on why information moves the way it does and provide as many updates as we can on all the major moving parts working to bring soccer back to Austin.

Information Expectations

We know that Austin is long-overdue for some meaty updates with tangible dates.

From the fan perspective, we get the frustration.

• “Give me something to believe in.”
• “I can’t see anything happening, therefore nothing must be happening.”
• “We’ve been jerked around by multiple groups claiming to be able to bring (and keep) soccer in Austin. Look where that got us.”

Taking things on faith takes a toll after awhile — and it’s been a long while.

What many fans don’t understand, and what we’re tying to help educate is this: On the business side, there’s a lot of good reasons why things are kept quiet (or only partially communicated) until they are ready for their big reveal. Just some of the use cases:

• Plans and timelines change. If X is announced for a Y date, but then the date moves to Z. Everyone is unhappy, promises look broken, it looks like another “setback.”
• Multiple constituencies. There’s a lot of people involved and a lot of moving pieces to bringing a team to town. If one thing is out of alignment, or one stakeholder isn’t on the same page, it could negatively impact the effort and actually create a setback for Austin.
• Showing your cards. A lot of other markets and competing entities who would like to see Austin not succeed in landing a team here. Remember how dumb it is every time a movie bad guy gives a monologue revealing his entire evil plan? Yeah — kind of like that. Not telling them, unfortunately means not telling you.

MLS in Austin is trying to communicate “less smoke” and “more fire” to the best of our ability. Constraints often make this an ongoing challenge and we try to make clear (and continue to improve) what information is based on:

• Things we know and can talk about
• Things we know and can’t fully elaborate on and/or reveal the source
• Things that are speculative with some reasoning on what’s forming our conclusions (usually based on the two points above)
• Things we know but can’t talk about at all, we just won’t until we can.

Hopefully with this understanding, we can shed some light on what and when you might be seeing some bigger flames above the ever-present smoke. This is based on everything we collectively know as of July 2017 and could all get changed by some development tomorrow.

📈 Supporter Survey Results and Conclusions: Two weeks

This is the easiest of the bunch. We were hoping to have results of our summer survey put together this week, but wanted to take some more time with the write-up. A draft article does exist and it’s a mix of interesting data points and a few positive surprises.

👏 Supporter Plans: Fall

MLS in Austin and Supporters Union (you’ll be hearing that name more often) are going to undergo some big and positive changes and restructuring as we move into the next phase of our plans. We have new websites and features under design and development, membership kit plans in the works, and a few other updates we choose not to go into detail on just yet as the details are still a work-in-progress. This will all lead up to a Fall event however.

🎩 Ownership Group: Before End-of-Year*

This is marked with an asterisk, because it’s likely not going to be a “Bam! Here’s your OG” kind of announcement, but the first news and noise of some of the people involved and interested should be revealed this year. This is will likely continue to develop well into 2018 and beyond.

🏟 Stadium Site and Initial Plans : Likely Before End-of-Year

The only thing we can say is that this hasn’t stopped moving forward even though public updates have been non-existant. Real, tangible things are happening here however; people have seen these things progressing — not just members of the MLS in Austin team.

Whatever and wherever you’ve seen for this stadium in your mind’s eye — it’s probably going to be way off the reality.

⚽️ Men’s Pro Soccer in Austin

MLS: ~2022 or later

Austin’s MLS team is definitely a few years out and we need to “prove it” that we are the right market compared to the other fine cities under consideration. 2022 is likely the earliest we’d take the field; possibly awarded in 2020. This assumption is based on a few things:

• Austin’s not ready to be one of the two teams selected in the for a 2020 start, which the next expansion window defined by MLS
• The second announced expansion window is less defined, but likely is going to be after 2020. 2022 has been mentioned as it aligns with the next Men’s World Cup year.
• There’s a practical and non-inconsequential matter of having the right ownership group in place and the stadium plan locked down, in addition to negotiating the process of getting Austin in play as a market for expansion and/or relocation consideration.

USL D2: Highly unlikely before 2022 if at all

As we’ve written before, the Aztex probably still have the franchise, USL could probably pull it at this point, but it’s moot really. While technically possible, no one is likely to build a USL-compliant stadium and bankroll fielding a team until there’s a firm verdict on where a Texas 3 MLS team would be located. People dropping millions on a USL club perform due diligence — well, should anyway. It’s also bad optics for USL to take away franchise rights from Austin without another ownership group ready to do something with them, so Austin’s status might be in limbo for some time.

The only scenario we see where USL D2 comes back is if Austin fails to bring MLS to town.

USL D3: Nope

Austin’s not a viable market for this; anyone telling you otherwise hasn’t done the research. This conclusion is simply based on the league’s published D3 market criteria versus the actual size of the Austin market and the fact that D2 rights already exist here.

Other: Being Researched — Maybe 2019

Since there’s clearly 5+ years for MLS to arrive, something like a Division 4 team would be relatively easy to stand-up in the meantime and not have any of the stadium issues of D2 USL. The cost to field and support a team is relatively small and it’s not a huge lift to launch a club — knowing they have around 5 years of runway to make an impression in Austin. Once MLS arrives, the team could evaluate the viability of continuing in the market, but there’s no surprises for anyone involved if the plug is then pulled: Owners, players, or fans. Their purpose from Day 1 would be as a placeholder team.

MLS in Austin has been directly involved with parties and potential owners interested in researching this further.

❓Questions

If you have additional questions or want us to post additional information on other topics, please let us know.

🙋Help Wanted

We’re continuing to expand the MLS in Austin team. If you’re interested in spending some of your free time bringing soccer back to Austin, please reach out. Here’s some hot areas right now, but no matter your skillset, you have a place helping bring professional soccer back to Austin:

• Photography and/or Video Production
• Graphic Design and/or Branding and/or Experience Design
• Marketing and/or PR and/or Social Media
• Stats and Data Research and/or Making Infographics
• Community Organizing and/or Lobbying and/or Civic Engagement
• Non-profit / Member-based groups coordination or management
• Experience coordinating soccer supporters and supporters groups

⏳In the Meantime?

• Please continue to get more involved
• Recruit your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, strangers
• Ask questions.
• Continue to make noise. People are noticing. Things are moving.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

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